Iran Establishes 'Treatment Clinic' For Women Who Defy Hijab Laws – JP

Iran has announced plans to establish a “hijab removal treatment clinic” in Tehran, aimed at what it claims will be “scientific and psychological treatment” for women who defy the country’s strict hijab laws.

Mehri Talebi Darestani, head of the Women and Family Department of the Headquarters for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, unveiled the initiative on Wednesday.

Critics, including the dissident news outlet Iran International, have expressed skepticism about the regime’s intentions, highlighting that Darestani reports to officials closely aligned with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The department responsible for this initiative has faced sanctions for human rights abuses, adding to concerns about its credibility and objectives.

The clinic’s announcement comes amid ongoing resistance to the hijab laws, which escalated following the death of Mahsa Amini in September 2022.

Amini’s death, reportedly at the hands of the “morality police” for not wearing her headscarf “properly,” ignited the “Women, Life, Freedom” movement. While the Iranian regime brutally suppressed the protests, discontent over mandatory hijabs persists, particularly among younger generations.

Observers have drawn connections between this clinic initiative and a recent incident at Islamic Azad University in Tehran, where a woman removed her clothing in protest. Authorities detained her, claiming she was suffering from “severe mental pressure,” a framing that critics see as an attempt to delegitimize dissent as mental illness.

Darestani, whose past includes promoting child marriage on state television and a dismissal from her role at the Ministry of Labor under unclear circumstances, has become a controversial figure in the regime’s ongoing enforcement of its deeply entrenched ideological laws.